A fuzzy ontology-based abstract search engine and its user studies

Query refinement can help users find information on the Internet more effectively. This feature has been implemented in a PASS (personalized abstract search services) system, a Web-based, domain-specific search engine for searching abstracts of research papers. The system uses a fuzzy ontology of term associations to support the feature. The ontology is automatically built in two stages using information obtained from the system's collection. A preliminary user study reveals that query refinement is one of the most important features of the system.